Nice TR.

You're final quads hit was playing Double Double Bonus, not Jacks or Better (btw DDB is the ONLY way to go when playing VP for drinks or for fun/gambools. All others can GTFO)

Also stay at Aria

Thanks.

Funnily enough Aria is the one strip casino I have never been to.
Definitely on my list for next time, although given its reputation for poker I would guess the players are better than average.

I found the best games were at the worst casinos, e.g. Monte Carlo, Flamingo, Quad.

+1

I love the TRs that are summed up as, "I played at V, B and Aria and got crushed . . ."

Yea stay at Aria, play elsewhere.

I have good times at B. A couple big ups and a couple of downs at V.

But Aria always finds new and different ways to take my $200 buy in, stick a dry one in my bum and telling me to have a nice night upstairs complaining on 2+2 and smoking too much ganja.

I played at v, b and a and won 2k in a week, plenty of fish to be had at these shops, but yeah I'm sure the lower end shops would be more profitable. But do they even have 2/5?

Good comment on the Aria... hehe.

I think the V is fantastic in a lot of senses:
1) Rake = $4 max
2) Big room so get seated very quickly (for $1/$2)
3) Friendly, pleasant atmosphere
4) Comps = $2 per hour which can be used at Grand Lux
5) Also can get poker room rate at a very good hotel

But I think the players are generally pretty good.
There were a couple of silly mistakes, e.g. mucking a chop, but generally people knew what they were doing.

Cue people who are really good at poker saying how easy any table of $1/$2 is...
(Not everyone is as good as you!)

Thanks for the report. I liked your refreshingly honest appraisal of hands you may have misplayed; often you learn a lot more from dissecting the losers than the winners.

I've noticed the same things in regard to room quality vs. game quality. The juiciest 1/2 game I've ever played in my life was at Flamingo (in which I got it AIPF w/ KK against 62 for a $500+ pot and counterfeited him after he flopped 2 pair and got to hear about what an 'effing luckbox' I was ). The only exception has been Bellagio, which I think has enough history and tourist appeal that people want to go so they can say "zomg I played at the Bellagio!". Don't think I've ever had a losing session there. Nonetheless, table selection is extra important in Vegas, because there's usually a fishy table to be found no matter where you are.

Thanks.
Tiny sample size (1!), but my Bellagio session was also quite soft (hence the profit ).
I only changed tables once (on the last night at the V). I didn't feel comfortable asking - what's the best way to do it?

How did I miss this one? Time to start reading from page one.

Another option for shooting is http://progunclub.com/

It's about 15-20 minutes away but it's much more fun shooting outdoors in the desert. You can even shoot up a car (although it costs 4 figures).

My wife and I did a package last year consisting of:

Shooting Package: $325.00
-25 rounds AK74
-25 rounds M26
-50 rounds M249 SAW
-4 rounds M203 grenade launcher
-10 rounds Barrett M82A1 50 cal sniper rifle

It was a 'blast'.

Oh yeah really enjoyed the TR! Can't wait for my 10-day solo trip next month!

Have you got a link to that package? I couldn't find anything on their site

You just contact them and tell them what you're interested in and they'll customize a package for you.

Great TR!
How swingy are the games?
I've heard that its pretty nitty and its "hard" to swing a lot of buy ins down if you are somehow good.

Because I'm thinking about going to Vegas and then I'd probably have 2500-3000$ as a bankroll and I dont know if its enough for 1/2$. I have played live probably 150hours or something, break even-ish but then I guess the fields i've played are quite harder than in Vegas, I think?

And how much did you spend on other things?
I'm thinking this for 10 days:
Flight + Hotel 1500$
Bankroll 3000$
Food 500$-ish

Other than that I'm not sure what more i'll spend stuff on. doubt it that i'm going out to partying since I'm pretty tired of it. And won't really shop anything since I spent like 15k$ on clothes last year :S

Anyhow, great TR and hopefully I'll have myself a nice TR some time near in the future.

Thanks for reviving it! Cool to see it back to page one...

Thanks. Where are you going to stay?

Thanks and good luck!

I'm sure $2000 is plenty for the poker. Probably 10 buy-ins for most people.
How swingy it is depends on the table and how you play.
I bought in fairly short most of the time and played on the nitty side (for live players!) so I guess that reduces the risk.
I did find some tables where everyone was straddling, particularly when they allowed button straddles. I tended to get out of those games because they were playing like $2/$5. As I said in the thread, that annoys me because there's a reason I'm sitting at a $1/$2 and not a $2/$5.

Other costs (from memory/guess and converting to $...):
$1500 for hotels
$1300 for (my) flights
$600 on food
$250 on clubbing/drinks

Didn't really do any shopping.

Nice tr. Enjoyed reading it all. Off to vegas in 15 days from London.
Dumb question, what did you use to make your graphs? Would also like to play at as many rooms as possible and your graph looked like a good way to keep track.

Thanks.

Not a dumb question.

I use Excel (as I use it all the time at work), then "copy as picture" into Paint, then upload Paint file to imgur.com. Much quicker than it sounds!

The TR was written after I returned home, so if you plan to do it live then maybe you need some kind of app.

Nice TR, cool pix. Liked the consistent posting of your graph as well.

Do you manually enter all your results into you excel for tracking?

Thanks.
Yes, I put it into Excel manually.
(I typed in all the results into the notes section of my phone while I was out there - very unsophisticated.)

The Quad had a game smaller than 1-2 NL so I wouldn't compare that game to 1-2 and 1-3 NL.

I'm not sure I agree that the fancy rooms have tougher games. Finding a good table has more to do with luck IMO than anything else. I see a ton of tourists and new faces in the big rooms, and they often have some wealthy people show up and spew at the tables. The less fancy rooms might also have some nittier regs who are intimidated by the big rooms.

Personally I've found the smaller rooms have either great games, average games or nitty games.

There's no way you could get a decent sample size from a TR similar to the sample size in this thread. A decent player getting crushed in those places in a couple of weeks could easily just be experiencing a bad run of cards.

I know the sample size is very small (I work in statistics!), but I do think it stands to reason.
The keener players are likely to seek out the big rooms.
The random players are more likely to sit at their own hotel.
imvho

Not saying you can't find good players at the smaller rooms and bad players at the bigger rooms but I do expect an underlying bias.

For the most part the better players are also going to play at the big rooms due to them being more comfortable, having a better rake structure with no promo drops, better comps, and the ease of table selection. The nicer amenities of the hotel/casino is also going to bring in people with more money that may not care whether they win or lose and are just looking to have a good time and can lose several buy ins quickly and not sweat it.

In the smaller rooms you are less likely to find such individuals, so while you may not run into the local grinders at the Quad, Excalibur, etc.. you are most likely not going to find many people that will sit down and dump $800 into a 1-2 game in 2 hours and be on there way.

Plus, their egos. They luvvv tweeting "I'm at the Venetian" or "I'm at the Aria".

Wouldn't be caught dead with "I'm at the Luxor".

Nice TR! Just getting through reading all of it.

OP puts in a ton of effort, posts great pictures with lots of detailed commentary, and your contribution boils down to:

1) "I like Mad Men"
2) Posting pictures of chip stacks that aren't yours.

OP has nothing to be ashamed of...you might though.